A Gentleman Never Tells by Amelia Grey Read Free Book Online Page A

to say the wedding had been canceled, but her father spoke first.
    “You’re early,” he snapped.
    “When it involves a wedding, a week is not too early to arrive. Besides, I wanted to surprise Gabrielle.”
    Her father picked up his glass again. “It’s more like you wanted to irritate the devil out of me.”
    She gave him a cunning smile as she untied the ribbon of her feathered bonnet and said, “You’ve always been able to see right through me, Duke.”
    He matched her smile with a smirk of his own. “It’s easy to see through shallow water, Elizabeth.”
    A deep, throaty laugh emerged from the small woman, and she walked farther into the room, taking off her gloves as she went. Her dark brown travelling dress swished around her ankles as she moved.
    “I’m delighted I can still manage to irritate you, but by the looks of that glass in your hand, I’d say I’ll have to stand in line today. I think someone has already beaten me to it this morning. It’s a bit early in the day for the fish juice, isn’t it, Duke?”
    “You would change your Puritan ways and be drinking, too, if you’d had the morning I’ve had,” he grumbled.
    Though the subject was a serious one, Gabrielle couldn’t help but smile as her father and aunt traded barbs with each other. Even though their dislike for each other was very real, always intense, and at times very caustic, they could be quite comical. For as long as she could remember, the two had never had a kind word for the other. Because of their constant bickering when they were around each other, Auntie Bethie visited them only once or twice a year. She usually stayed at least three or four weeks every time. The duke would always find a reason to leave shortly after her arrival, and she would always leave as soon as he returned.
    Elizabeth stopped in front of the duke’s desk, propped a lean hip against it, and asked, “Who is the lucky devil who dared to take my place of honor in your cold heart?”
    Gabrielle’s father lifted his glass in salute to Elizabeth. “A viscount named Brentwood.”
    Auntie Bethie turned toward Gabrielle. “Perhaps I’ll meet him at the wedding?”
    “You’re too late for the wedding,” her father said gruffly.
    Her aunt peeled her hat off her head, tossed the feathered bonnet to Gabrielle, and then turned back to the duke. “Will you make up your mind, old man? You just told me I was early.”
    “Blast it, woman, you were early because the wedding was next week, and there was no reason for you to come until the day of it. And you’re late now because the wedding has just been canceled.”
    A garbled gasp came from the doorway. “Gabby, you’re not going to marry Staunton?”
    At the sound of her sister’s voice, Gabrielle spun toward the door. Rosabelle stood just inside the room, her bright blue eyes glistening with questions Gabrielle wasn’t ready to answer.
    Rosabelle rushed breathlessly into the room, her long golden curls bouncing on her back. Her gaze searched wildly from Gabrielle to their father, to their aunt, and then back to Gabrielle. “Tell me, is what I just heard true?”
    Looking at her sister’s hopeful expression, Gabrielle knew that Rosabelle was brimming with love for Staunton. Earlier in the day, Gabrielle had wondered how she’d missed their love for each other, but now she knew. She simply hadn’t cared enough for Staunton one way or the other to notice how he looked at any other young ladies, or how they looked at him.
    The duke rose from his chair. “That is the truth.”
    Relief that quickly turned to hopefulness washed down Rosabelle’s face. Her chest heaved with expectations, and her eyes once again eagerly searched every face in the room. But obviously reading the dire expressions of Gabrielle, her father, and her aunt, she quickly masked her happiness with a troubled, exaggerated frown of shock.
    Rosabelle clutched her skirt in her hands. “Auntie Bethie, is this why you are here?” Not